Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) | Hansard source

There has been a lot of focus recently on the Albanese government and their broken promises. This government promised to leave no-one behind—'no Australian behind' they said. Their promise was to hold no-one back. Their promise was to use the great privilege of government in order to make positive differences to the lives of Australians. These were promises that they made to Australians over and over and over again. Now, 18 to 20 months later, there is no doubt at all, absolutely none, that Labor have failed to deliver on their promises. Households and families in my region in the north-west, the west coast and King Island in Tasmania, families from across Tasmania, families from across the nation have never done it tougher.

The coalition successfully guided this nation through the biggest health and economic crisis in living memory. We handed the reins over to the Albanese government in 2022 and the wheels have invariably fallen off the cart. The latest food hunger report from Tasmania is alarming. In the past 12 months—and these are facts—84,000 Tasmanian households have experienced food insecurity. Let's just think about that for a moment. Let's just think about what it's like not having the means, the confidence to provide a simple meal for your family. In the 12-month period just gone, 84,000 households in Tasmania experienced food insecurity. This is 18,000 more households, more families, than in 2022. Imagine what that's like for a moment. The No. 1 reason Tasmanians are struggling to meet their food needs is because of Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Eighty-seven per cent of Tasmanians say that the No. 1 reason for their food insecurity is the cost of living.

We need to be clear about the reason for this bill from the outset. What is the purpose of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024? It's certainly not a long-term economic plan. It came about just a few weeks ago. That's when a desperate prime minister called every member of his government to Canberra for a special crisis meeting—at great expense to the Australian taxpayer, might I add. This side has been telling this government and the Prime Minister that Australians are going to the wall. They're not doing it well; they're doing it tough. Australians are being left behind. Australians are being held back. We've been telling this government for 18 months, but they've refused to listen. So what was the purpose of the dash to Canberra and the crisis meeting? It wasn't about the cost-of-living crisis. The meeting was about what Labor believed to be a political crisis—the looming by-election in Dunkley, no doubt. They hatched a cunning plan. It was a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a fox. It involved most vulnerable Australians, giving them a pat on the head and 15 bucks in their pockets. But we'll kick that down the road in about five months time. They won't see anything in their pocket for approximately five months. They're hoping that in that time they'll win that by-election in the seat of Victoria. This government is not about people. It's just about politics, and that's what this bill is all about.

So how much has Labor's cost-of-living crisis cost us? Around 45,000 taxpayers across my electorate of Braddon in the north-west, West Coast and King Island will get a tax cut from 1 July. They will. If you earn around $50,000 you'll get around $15 a week under Labor's plan. If you earn around $73,000 you'll get $14 extra. Labor MPs have been rising in this place, telling us how generous they are and patting Australians on the head and giving every Australian an extra $15. Tell those families who can't feed their families at home and are lining up at welfare outlets in order to get a meal. Tell them what $15 does for them. What they should be doing is standing up and apologising for not meeting their promises to their electorates. This is a government that's giving $15 in order to compensate for the thousands of dollars, and in many cases tens of thousands of dollars, that Australians are worse off because of their economic mismanagement. It's shameful.

As I'm out and about in the electorate, on the ground listening to people, they've been telling me that the No. 1 issue that's holding them back is Labor's cost-of-living crisis. No-one is immune from it. Regardless of your tax bracket and irrespective of whether you are an employee or a business owner, Labor's cost-of-living crisis does not discriminate. It's hitting everybody, and it's hitting harder and harder and getting worse and worse. Parents are now making really tough choices about getting their kids what they need to return to school, because Labor's rising cost of living is biting into everything that they touch.

Under the Albanese government, Australians have seen the largest fall in living standards of any advanced country in the world. There have been 12 interest rate increases under this Labor government. Housing costs have risen. Mortgage payments have risen. Rental costs have gone up. Real wages have gone backwards. In fact, they've gone backwards by six per cent. Labour productivity is in absolute freefall, with a 6.7 per cent reduction in labour productivity since Labor came to government. When Labor talk about how they're growing the economy, the economy is growing only because of a rapid population growth. Almost half a million people have immigrated to this country in the past 12 months. For the past two quarters, the GDP per person has gone backwards, and yet those opposite believe that they should be congratulated. We should blow whistles and throw streamers for giving the most vulnerable $15 a week. It's an absolute joke.

The average household with a $750,000 mortgage is paying an additional $24,000 a year in mortgage repayments. This is a government that promised a $275 reduction in electricity prices, but we've seen electricity prices increase by 18 per cent, the complete antithesis of what they promised. Gas prices have gone up by 28 per cent. Food has gone up by 8.2 per cent. Rent has gone up by 10.4 per cent. The cost of insurance has increased by 17.3 per cent. The price of everything that we touch is going up for hardworking Australians. But Labor thinks it's okay if we give them $15 a week, pat them on the head and tell them how great they are. Well, it's not going to cut it—taking Australians for mugs.

It's important, when discussing Labor's alteration to the stage 3 tax cuts, that we tell the full story. In order to tell that full story, we must consider what the coalition introduced, the full suite of tax cuts, specifically aimed at helping low- and middle-income families. We are the government of lower taxes. Under a coalition government, stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 tax cuts were legislated. Stages 1 and 2 were specifically targeted at people on low and middle incomes, and stages 1 and 2 were delivered as promised, because we stick to our word. The coalition's economic plan delivered $200 billion worth of targeted tax cuts to low- and middle-income earners.

This bill will reinstate the 37 per cent marginal tax rate, which was eliminated by the coalition in our original stage 3 plan. This means that if you're on an income above $135,000 you will pay more tax sooner in the years ahead, due to wage inflation. This is called bracket creep, and 2.3 million extra taxpayers, or 14 per cent of taxpayers, will face the 37 per cent rate in 2024-25. This will rise to five million, or 26 per cent, in a decade. Labor's decision to reinstate the 37 per cent tax rate is a war on aspirational Australians trying to get ahead. It reaffirms what we all know, that Labor taxes more.

If people work harder, if they take risks, if they invest, if they employ, they should not be unfairly punished or penalised for doing so. In fact, they need to be rewarded and encouraged. They need to be thanked. I believe 100 per cent that we need to be incentivising aspiration, incentivising people to get ahead, to work harder, to earn more and to pay less tax. Labor don't like that. They believe in big, bureaucratic, high-taxing governments, not small, nimble, profitable businesses. In Labor's first 18 months in government, personal income tax has risen by a record 27 per cent. Bracket creep, driven by rampant inflation, is the thief in the night. The reinstatement of the 37 per cent tax bracket is the tax increase that Australians never voted for.

Finally, we won't stand in front of any tax cut for Australians. It's not our way. But I believe that this government should have done something about the cost-of-living crisis, about the real cause, rather than simply giving a pat on the head. I call on this government to be honest and tell Australians why this bill is being introduced right at this present time. Families across the electorate of Braddon—in the north-west, the west coast and King Island—in Tasmania are telling me, about their cost-of-living pressures, that they've never seen anything like it in their lives. This side have been telling Labor, over and over, that our communities are doing it tough. Their response, for 18 months, has been to ignore our pleas and to do nothing. They've kept the money in the bank while our families have gone hungry. For the past 18 months, with money in the bank, the government have turned their back on struggling families. So why now? Politics—that's why. There's a revolt in Labor ranks across the backbenches. They're nervous that they might lose their seats because people in their seats are also feeling the cost-of-living crisis. This government might have promised to leave no-one behind. They might have promised to hold no-one back. But the truth is their promises have gone unfulfilled. Hardworking Australians always go backwards under Labor, and you'll always pay more tax under Labor.

To put politics aside for one moment, I urge all Australians out there to forget about politics for a moment and sit down quietly and consider this. Ask yourself the question: have you felt better in the last two years under Labor, or is your family—like mine, in my electorate—doing it tough?

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